Listen

Well, this was going to be a post of our Yo Gabba Gabba concert, but our camera is on the fritz so I don't have access to the pictures right now. Chase took the card out of the camera and put them directly onto the lap top which he has at work. He was able to save those pictures, so I will post them later. Until then here is a story and/or lesson for y'all...

About 3 weeks ago I went into our youngest's room to check on her. I wanted to make sure she hadn't thrown all her blankets out of her bed which she likes to do; it was supposed to be a cold night. As I went in through the adjoining bathroom door, I was only using the light from our bedroom so it was dark. I noticed something on the floor by the door and thinking it was a toy I decided I should probably pick it up before someone stepped on it. Right before I bent over to pick it up, a thought pops into my head... "Turn on the light". Well, I reasoned back to that thought in my head that that would be stupid because I would risk waking up the baby. As I'm bending down, and looking closer I'm not sure if it's a toy or something wrong with the carpet, but I kept going, never turned on the light, even though that prompting came again. Well, my finger made contact, not with a toy or the carpet, but with a scorpion. I screamed and immediately as it stung me I knew what it was even though this was my first time being stung by a scorpion and I couldn't see what it was. I flipped on the bathroom light and saw it scamper away out of the corner of my eye.

Chase came running in to see what happened and as I tended to my wound he flipped on the baby's light to try to find the scorpion to no avail. All, the screaming, and rummaging, and lights shining never woke her up. Well, a panic set in because I have had really bad reactions to ant bites here and I thought for sure I would stop breathing or lose a limb. I immediately took some benadryl and tried to ice away the pain in my finger. The whole time I'm doing this, I know very well that I had been warned. How stupid could I have been to just dismiss such a blatant prompting and warning. I have no doubt that the spirit tried to warn me, but I obviously knew better. I couldn't have felt more stupid and humbled. Well, I was blessed that nothing but some temporary pain occurred. The sting hurt really bad immediately, and dissipated into a dull throbbing, but by morning I felt nothing, only a barely visible bump was at the sting site.

I began to wonder how many other times had I just ignored a prompting that would have saved me so much grief and pain. I also wondered how many times a "thought" popped into my head that was an actual prompting that I had followed that had helped me or someone else. I hope that I have followed more promptings than I have ignored. Sadly, I think often times, being the humans that we are, there are lots of times where we think we know better or because something doesn't make sense to us we ignore it.

My scorpion sting was a big wake up call. I need to remember to listen and not think I can handle things on my own or don't need the help of my Savior and Heavenly Father. I need to realize that my Heavenly Father knows what's best for me and He can and will help me if I allow Him to and if I will take the time to stop and listen. This life is so crazy and busy, it's very easy to get caught up in the bustle and forget to stop and listen. I think of my own children and how I try to keep them safe and warn them of dangers and how sad it must be for our Heavenly Father when we don't listen. He's there to guide us and protect us, even if it's to prevent me from a stupid scorpion sting. I just hope I'm paying attention to the bigger promptings no matter how strange they may sound that may have eternal consequence for myself, others, or a loved one. I started to think how many times does Heavenly Father use us to help someone else, or uses others to help us. I started to think, what if I was lazy on one of those days He needed me to follow a prompting and I just dismissed it, I really and truly hope not.

On Tuesday night I took my youngest to the doctor for what I knew must be another ear infection, which it ended up being. As I waited at the drive up to pick up her medicine I had texted Chase about it and slipped my phone back into my purse. Almost immediately, my phone rang, so I fished it back out. It was my friend from church who I also visit teach. She asked if I had tried to call her, I said no. She said her phone rang, but then no one answered and/or it went dead after she picked it up. I apologized but couldn't understand how I would have dialed her number. Instead of just ignoring it though, my friend decided to call me back. I explained that I was in the drive up getting meds for Joelle and that she had an ear infection again.

My friend is a nurse and she asked if they gave her the pain drops for her ears as well. I answered no, and she was shocked because it was a common thing to do for the pain. She then told me that she had an extra bottle at her house that I could have for Joelle. Even as "coincidence" fell on "coincidence", it never occurred to me that she had possibly followed the spirit by calling me back. My friend then said, "Well see, you may not have called me, but the spirit called me for you". I laughed, but looking back she could have just ignored my call and assumed I'd call back if it was important. It may be just a little thing, but it shows me that my Heavenly Father loves me and He loves Joelle and is mindful enough of her that He would care to ease her pain, even just a little.

I am going to try to be more active in listening, even when a thought or an idea seems a little strange or even uncomfortable. I'm going to try to pay attention and try to create more opportunities for me to be able to receive and recognize the promptings in time for me to act on them. I hope I have learned a valuable lesson from all this and that I will not be foolish or stupid in the future and always listen.

p.s. Sorry about my blog background, I just realized it covers some of the text on the top. I will try to look for a new one tomorrow.

Thanksgiving 2011

Well, I had a whole bunch of cool pictures to share of Thanksgiving...until the camera decided to get rid of them all. I have a sneaking suspicion that Joelle played a part in the camera acting up. She had climbed up onto the piano, retrieved the camera, and pushed some buttons. One of the older kids discovered her with it and brought it to me. The camera was set to some strange setting and after looking at it Chase was able to put it back to normal. However, when I put the camera into the computer to charge it and transfer pictures, the computer said there was an error and then poof all the pictures were gone, Chase couldn't save them.

So, take a minute and close your eyes and now imagine a beautiful spread of yummy food :) Imagine my beautiful table centerpieces that I made for the first time ever. I will try to describe them to you later.

I brined the turkey the night before, then buttered and salt and peppered it before throwing it into the oven. I had made 3 pies the day before...french silk, pear, and apple. Our good friends brought a pecan and pumpkin pie and also some really delicious mashed potatoes. I made creamy peach jello, rolls, veggie tray with dip, and a lime slush punch. I utilized my crock pots for the first time for Thanksgiving this year, it turned out perfect. I had one big crock pot with my stuffing. I had gone to Jimmy John's and purchased 4 loaves of their day old bread, it made the best stuffing. My mom gave me a triple pot crock pot, if that's a name for it. I put corn in one, green bean casserole and gravy in the others. I followed Ken Black's (Chase's uncle who makes the best gravy ever) gravy recipe, and to my utter delight this year it turned out :) . I also made cranberry sauce, but had a store bought can on the side for Chase just in case the homemade kind didn't do it for him. I don't think I left anything out, it turned out pretty awesome. I had 4 new recipes that I tried this year so I was nervous they wouldn't turn out, but everything was great.

For my centerpieces, I took 2 small clear vases, and alternated layers of acorns and cranberries. Then I tied some raffia around the vase. I put one vase on my fall table runner with 2 small pumpkins (leftover from Halloween bowling). On the other table I found some leftover fall material scraps and layered them and put the other vase there with 2 more pumpkins. It was pretty, I'm sure it wasn't that impressive, but I was excited about it. The kids weren't too happy though because I made them go out and collect acorns for me. I had leftover cranberries from the cranberry sauce.

We had a fun dinner with just our family and friends and we hope everyone else had a Happy Thanksgiving as well!